In a fantasy world filled with magic and miraculous beings, will the religious concepts of the locals be completely different from the human of Earth?

[Anonym]

this question is: in a fantasy world (such as Toril) filled with magic and miraculous beings, will the religious concepts of the locals be completely different from those of the human of Earth(which a magicless world)?

In such a world, everything is clear and knowable. You know that various magical powers, gods, and other similar beings exist. you know that after you die, your soul will go somewhere to enjoy eternal bliss or torment————and more importantly, you can (at least in theory) actually know and verify this, such as through the spell of Planeshift or Gate. although such spells are only available to a few of the most powerful people, they are indeed possible and exist.
In this world, miracles are cheap. If all you can do is walk on water, feed a large crowd with a few loaves of bread, or cure a few diseases, it's nothing. while not everywhere, every larger town usually has one or two people who can do it. more importantly, even if you can perform somg greater miracle, like make people resurrection from the dead, it doesn't mean much. raising the dead is a powerful spell, but there are countless powerful people who can cast it————how can you prove that you are superior to others?

In a fantasy world where magic and countless miraculous beings actually exist, people even the lowest peasants won't believe your empty words; they demand proof, tangible power. in other words, according to Earth's concepts, they are actually MATERIALISTS AND ATHEISTS————they know that God exists and worship them, but their concepts of such things is completely different from that of magicless Earthlings. simply put,unlike our Earth,in the fantasy world,if a missionary attempts to spread faith with empty words without demonstrating any real miracles, no one will care them.

 

[The Firebird]

Yeah, I think it is straightforwardly true that religion in a d&d-esque fantasy world with clerics and such would be radically different from our own. The only way you can get close is if make these powers very rare--think of the recent Nosferatu (2024) movie, for example. I do find that a good approach.

 

[Deset Gled]

In a fantasy world where magic and countless miraculous beings actually exist, people even the lowest peasants won't believe your empty words; they demand proof, tangible power. in other words, according to Earth's concepts, they are actually MATERIALISTS AND ATHEISTS————they know that God exists and worship them, but their concepts of such things is completely different from that of magicless Earthlings. simply put,unlike our Earth,in the fantasy world,if a missionary attempts to spread faith with empty words without demonstrating any real miracles, no one will care them.

Labeling a person who has a different view of religion than you as a materialist or atheist is troubling on a couple of levels.

Frankly, this particular line of discussion seems to be fairly counterproductive. If you frame your discussion of religion around your personal view of it (as you do here with topics such as proof/faith, missionaries, etc.), you're inevitably having a discussion about real religions, not fantasy ones. And that's outside the scope of this website.

 

[Reynard]

The problem with this question is tat it ignores how much magical thinking humans have always had and still do have. In the West, we tend to think of superstition and magical thinking as "backwards" but we still read our horoscopes and jiggle our crystals and cross ourselves when we enter a scary place. That is to say, magic has always bene very real to humans, and they still had religion.

 

[Argyle King]

The Banestorm setting makes an attempt at addressing some of the questions you ask.

It is a setting where people from our world were (at some point in the past) sucked into. So, you have Christianity, Islam, and Judaism existing alongside fantasy elements such as dwarves, elves, and orcs.

 

[cbwjm]

I sort of wonder how much a typical inhabitant would "know" about the way things work. There are priests of the gods who claim how the world works but most of the followers of the gods would have to take it on faith. Just because priests have magic doesn't mean it is necessarily divine, after all, bards can heal, wizards and sorcerers have miraculous powers, earlier editions had psions who could heal, who is to say that they couldn't come along and declare a new god is risen and their power is justification for its existence.

People can travel the planes and see what's what, but that is a fraction of a fraction of people who can and do. Even in the Forgotten realms during the avatar trilogy when the avatars of the gods walked the earth did the majority even see them and even if they did, they still need to have faith that these are the actual gods; it could've just as easily been something masquerading as them.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I suspect the predictable magic of of a lot of rpg fantasy world's might counterintuitively (since some of it is "divine") make people less religious. Many years ago I came to the realization that it's really kind of odd that many religions don't revolve around worshiping the sun given that it's clearly the most miraculous and important thing in our day to day lives, and that it clearly radiates power in a way that will literally blind you if you stare directly at it. Seems like the most obvious god to me. The problem is that it is also incredibly predictable, so even people without a sufficient explanation for it tend to view it as part of regular nature (many important sun gods notwithstanding, the point is that it's regularity makes it possible to not treat as divine even when it seems to check so many obvious boxes tying it to divinity). Similarly if the world is full of people who can cast magic on a daily basis maybe the miraculous in general all just gets dismissed as "a wizard probably did it" or part of the natural magic of the world, and people don't really believe in gods so much. Even if Clerics are doing magic, if an agnostic Bard can do the same magic maybe you don't necessarily believe the whole thing about gods giving them those powers.

 

[Kichwas]

The biggest flaw with a lot of fantasy pantheons is given that regular people also have super powers - you'd rightly see all those guys running around claiming to be divine beings as full of it. All they are is more powerful super heroes and villains than you.

In any 'pantheon' where a mortal can become one of them, it's even more blatantly obvious that they're nothing more than the justice league when you're the mystery men. How can they be the being that made the universe or that keep the rivers flowing when last week one of them was just the local seamstress and you knew her as a kid? That's just someone who gained super powers.

The idea of worshiping that starts to break apart really fast. You might fear it. If the Superman who calls himself "Zargon, lord of rocks that go boom" gets a bad director he might start enjoying tearing down castles and watching peasants burn and you've got to hide for a decade until somebody else takes over his scheduling and he's back to saving squirrels.

You might actually reach some form of animism sooner than the real world. The idea that you need to stop anthropomorphizing divinity. religion becomes instead the search for the truths to existence, a recognition that all existence is connected - matter, energy, mind and soul. We sort of call that Physics in the real world. Or Animism if you believe in the soul part. And perhaps that the concept of the divine is simply either that everything is a part of it, or its what made everything, and likely both.

Stripped down, this is what a lot of the real worlds great spiritual teachers have put forth, and it's even in the teachings of many faiths to not anthropomorphize divinity (don't make idols for example, as well as notions that to actually see the divine would either be impossible or drive one insane because it's too complex to be comprehended).

A world where there are super powers (magic) everywhere, and you can put a scale to it all, and yet folks have also figured out an afterlife is real - even if only because they've met the neighborhood bard who's an undead intelligent mariachi skeleton (Ok, it's a character I've been itching to play) - that's a world that probably would have more spiritualism while also having less religion and faith. Faith requires and unknown, and religion is just putting a layer of politics over the mystery.

 

[Anonym]

The problem with this question is tat it ignores how much magical thinking humans have always had and still do have. In the West, we tend to think of superstition and magical thinking as "backwards" but we still read our horoscopes and jiggle our crystals and cross ourselves when we enter a scary place. That is to say, magic has always bene very real to humans, and they still had religion.

But the people of a fantasy world demand proof, not empty words. If you were a preacher claiming that your deity was the ruler and creator of the universe, and that you were its son, you would have to prove it with miracles—if you only spoke empty words or used some rare power that others could use (like resurrecting the dead), no one would believe you.

I suspect the predictable magic of of a lot of rpg fantasy world's might counterintuitively (since some of it is "divine") make people less religious. Many years ago I came to the realization that it's really kind of odd that many religions don't revolve around worshiping the sun given that it's clearly the most miraculous and important thing in our day to day lives, and that it clearly radiates power in a way that will literally blind you if you stare directly at it. Seems like the most obvious god to me. The problem is that it is also incredibly predictable, so even people without a sufficient explanation for it tend to view it as part of regular nature (many important sun gods notwithstanding, the point is that it's regularity makes it possible to not treat as divine even when it seems to check so many obvious boxes tying it to divinity). Similarly if the world is full of people who can cast magic on a daily basis maybe the miraculous in general all just gets dismissed as "a wizard probably did it" or part of the natural magic of the world, and people don't really believe in gods so much. Even if Clerics are doing magic, if an agnostic Bard can do the same magic maybe you don't necessarily believe the whole thing about gods giving them those powers.

I think in a typical fantasy world (like Toril), people's concept of "faith" is more similar to how humans on Earth would choose an insurance company————"Which insurance company has which product that best meets my needs and my tastes? are they reliable? this one is nice but I hate it."
People of fantasy world worship gods because they need their services and pay them with their own services and donations in return. and a primary purpose of faith is the hope of a better life in the afterlife, rather than becoming foods for demon or devil's BBQ party.
of course, personal preferences (or alignments) also play a significant role in determining which gods they worship and which they dislike, but ultimately, the purpose of faith is clear: to exchange service for service and to invest in their afterlife in an attempt to improve it.
In fantasy worlds, people won't worship gods who can't give anything in return,even AO worshipers of Toril are motivated by curiosity and reverence for the most powerful being in Toril, and they are extremely minority and considered weirdo since AO don't give naughty word to them. people's faith is far more rational, utilitarian business or career and by no means unconditional or unrequited.

 

[sevenbastard]

I think D&D as a whole would have been better without clerics and divine magic.